


"Where does it hurt?"

by Kate88



Series: Striketober 2020 [4]
Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Gen, Minor Injuries, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26813161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate88/pseuds/Kate88
Series: Striketober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948660
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24
Collections: Striketober | Cormoran Strike Fictober 2020





	"Where does it hurt?"

Doctor Coates stands back, shaking her head wearily.

“Where does it hurt?” she asks, with a sigh. There are patients she’d much rather treat. Patients who are glad to see her. Patients who heed their limits. Patients who don’t abuse their bodies and then take their agony out on over-stretched NHS GPs. 

“Fuckin’ everywhere” is Strike’s mutinous response.

“Don’t be an arse, Cormoran”. The pretty woman who’d called her earlier, hushed and hurried as if she was making the phone-call surreptitiously, doesn’t look up from her typing but her Northern vowels hold a warning.

Her patient rolls his eyes but relents. He indicates the area where the skin on his stump has split. It’s red and warm to the touch. He also explains that when he’d stood up that morning, he’d felt the familiar tearing sensation in his hamstring and had fallen before he could gain his balance.

“That’s when I called you” his secretary? _(Employee? Girlfriend?)_ explains.

Strike glowers darkly from his chair. “You had no right….”

“Oh, give it a rest” she _(did she say her name was Rachel? Rebecca?)_ scolds him. He surprises the doctor by falling silent, eyebrows knitted furiously together.

“Have you been keeping up with the district physio? Doing your exercises?” Dr Coates asks, already knowing the answer. In all the time this man has been a patient at her practise, he has never once surprised her by claiming that yes, he was doing everything possible to keep himself healthy. It’s infuriating to her, when so many of her other patients try their best to manage their conditions. They listen to their doctor, ask her advice, follow her instructions to the letter.

The woman _(Robin!)_ coughs in a pointed fashion.

“Yeah well, you haven’t either” he shoots over at her, looking slightly pleased to have been able to gain a point. 

Doctor Coates leaves a prescription for antibiotics and a stern warning that should they begin to see red tracking lines emerge from the wound on his stump, they should proceed immediately to A&E. She can tell by Strike’s dismissive _‘yeah, okay’_ that he has absolutely no intention of following this guidance. She instructs him on the proper care for his damaged hamstring, ignoring his muttered _‘fuck sake’_ when she tells him he should avoid walking on it for at least a week.

“Thanks so much Doctor Coates” Robin smiles, as she shows her to the door. Why is such a polite, friendly young woman working for such an unpleasant man?

Doctor Coates makes her way slowly down the stairs.

“Considering you’ve had so much practise, you’re a bloody horrible patient” she can hear Robin admonishing, through the open office door above her.

She just makes out Strike’s growled response before opening the door onto Denmark Street.

“Considering I’ve sacked you once already, you’re bloody brave to be taking liberties like ringing my doctor”.

The noise of the street greets the doctor, the interminable roadworks making her wince. She looks at the next patient on her list, sees that it is Mrs Shaw and smiles. Mrs Shaw is diabetic and will be delighted to see her.


End file.
